


Constricted

by glackedandmullered



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Panic Attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 07:45:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1170503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glackedandmullered/pseuds/glackedandmullered
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Crushing. A vice around his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Constricted

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Ah ot6 where Michael is having a panic attack but he's never had one before so it makes him even more scared and confused
> 
> The most frustrating thing is knowing panic attacks well but not being able to write them.

Crushing. That’s what it felt like inside his chest. Like every morsel of air was being forced out of his body, an iron fist around his lungs, squeezing. His head was blurry, he couldn’t see straight as he stumbled and fell against the wall, too unsteady and shaky to be able to remain on his feet. One second he had been in the kitchen, enjoying a quiet day in the office with only a handful of people mingling about the building and the next he was struck by this – whatever it was – terrifying and baffling dark cloud that settled over his head and took hold of his mind. With no one around to call for he found himself staggering through the halls, eyes wide and searching as breathing became harder than he had ever remembered it being and the walls seemed to bleed out shadows that grappled at him with long dark tendrils.

Sliding down the wall of the studio he came to rest on the ground, hand around his throat, pulling at his skin in fear. He had no idea what was happening, the colours around him were blending into one, melting in blurred darkness, vision tunnelling as he drew in tight hissing breaths through the thin straw of space his throat had become. The trembling fingers on his free hand that wasn't gripping his throat scrabbled for purchase on the cold stone floor but were met with nothing but sharpness that caught his fingernails and scratched painfully at his fingertips. He couldn’t feel the pain as the skin started to tear, numb to everything but the roaring in his ears.

"Hey Michael, you okay?" The voice came from his left, light footsteps padding across the studio floor as he wheezed and let his head loll to the side. Someone skidded to their knees beside him, grabbing at his shoulders and gently pulling his hand away from this neck where the grip had turned bruising. Without the support he had nothing to concentrate on and his eyes flicked back and forth, terrified as his breaths became harder and harder to take. 

All of a sudden his jaw was cupped by warm hands and he was faced by Rays blurry silhouette, eyes just as wild, dark and searching.

"What's happening? Michael, tell me what's wrong." Michael could only manage to shake his head in response, eyes wide and bloodshot pleading with the world to make Ray figure it out because he was nowhere near a conclusion. 

Fingers pressed against his throat and Ray swore at the rabbit fast pulse beneath his touch. There was a cold sweat on Michaels brow, his skin was void of colour – almost grey - and a terrifying blue tint was bleeding into his chapped lips. 

Ray wracked his brains, tempted to get up and run, find someone to help or call an ambulance but he couldn't bring himself to leave his boyfriend. He pulled up Michaels shirt roughly and checked for injury, nothing but his slightly tanned, smooth skin. 

Finally getting a grasp on the situation he took Michaels jaw in his hands again. "Okay Michael, love I think you're having a panic attack. You're going to be fine I promise but you need to breathe." If Michael had had enough breath in him to spare he would have laughed, did Ray really think breathing was that easy. He closed his eyes tight and tears leaked from behind his lids with frustration, fear and wavering agony. He could barely hear what his boyfriend was saying, the words were muffled beneath mountains of cotton balls, drowning under waves of tumbling water. 

Ray could have screamed as the rough, gasping wheezes continued to stream pitifully from Michaels lips and he groaned. Manhandling Michael so that he could rest his back against Rays chest he wrapped his arms around his struggling lover. 

"It's okay, I'm here. Just follow my breathing, okay love? Just do that for me." He pleaded, taking in exaggerated breaths he drew his hand up and down Michael chest firmly in support. 

"Please Michael, Please try." He begged, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes while he concentrated all his energy on calming his boyfriend. He desperately wished that Geoff was here or Ryan or anyone really, he wasn’t the best to be dealing with this. He had no idea what to do, he didn’t even know if Michael was listening to him, though if the lack of any change in his struggled breaths was anything to go by then he wasn’t hopeful.

Michael tried, he really did, to listen to the short spurts of words that broke through the fog in his mind but he just couldn’t get his body to respond. Panic attack, not something he had ever experienced before and definitely not something he wanted to do again anytime soon.

“Please please please.” Rays whispered plea cracked the wall holding Michael back inside his mind and his oxygen starved brain fought with everything it had left to swim to the surface and slip through the opening left by Rays voice.

With a heaving gasp he came back to himself, breaths coming stronger as he surged forwards in Rays grasp. The younger man let out a cry of relief and rubbed his hand up and down Michaels spine soothingly as he coughed and choked over the feeling of being able to once again draw deep breaths. His lungs were burning, cramping with pain and he sagged back against his boyfriends chest, lightheaded and extremely exhausted. Ray wrapped tight arms around him, thumbs rubbing lightly against Michaels skin as the man’s breathing completely evened out and his freckled face gained back some colour.

He was still stroking Michaels arm soothingly while the man slept when Jacks head craned around the doorway, peering at them down his glasses.

“Uh…you okay there?” The bearded man asked, frowning curiously at his boyfriends lying on the floor, the youngest curled around Michael as if he were holding him together. Which wasn’t far from the truth. Ray smiled tiredly, taking one hand away from Michaels arm to reach up for Jack.

“Yeah…can you help him up? I don’t have the upper body strength for this lug.” He laughed weakly and thanked Jack as he lifted Michael from Rays lap, careful not to wake the sleeping man who was perfectly content to snuggle into Jack shoulder. Ray clambered to his feet shakily, using the wall for support as he ambled after Jack to their office where he lowered Michael down onto the white leather of the couch and draped his jacket over the sleeping man. He glanced up, questioning, as Ray came through the doorway, eyes bloodshot and face pale. He shook his head and lowered himself to the floor.

“I’ll explain later.” Ray sighed, curling up against the couch and slipping his hand into Michaels as Jack handed him his own jacket to drape over his shoulders. He allowed himself to fall asleep to Michaels soft breaths and promised to get to the bottom of this when he awoke.


End file.
